How a Victorian newspaper lost its local touch: Anthony Hewitson’s Preston Chronicle, 1868-90 Andrew Hobbs University of Central Lancashire @hobbb Sense of community Spirit of place Sense of place Geographic identity Civic pride Local patriotism Parochial loyalties Local attachments Collective identity Local belonging Localized culture Local identity Some newspaper techniques for promoting local identity • Name of town in newspaper’s title • Local symbols, insignia, emblems in masthead (newspaper title) • Local maps and views, portraits of local celebrities • Fiction and poetry with local themes • Letters from local people in foreign lands • Local news • Local adverts • Local history • Boosterism • Favourable comparisons with rival towns • Language: ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’ versus ‘they’, ‘them’, ‘their’ Anthony Hewitson (1836-1912) Owner-editor of Preston Chronicle, 1868-90 1868 1889 Copland, ‘Evening – Old Quay, Preston on Ribble’ Harris Museum & Art Gallery Hewitson’s curmudgeonly attitude to docks work
Preston Herald editorial: ‘This day (Saturday, the 11th of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-four) will remain to the end of time a most memorable day in the history of Preston …’
Hewitson diary, Sat 11 Oct 1884: “This afternoon the first sod of the big new dock on south side of Ribble, opposite Marsh, was cut by Alderman Gilbertson. Luncheon afterwards. I declined to go. Object to way Ribble scheme has been pushed forward &c.”
Preston Chronicle gossip column: ‘To-day there will be a great stir on the Penwortham side of the Ribble … there will be quite … a big marshalling, at the Town-hall, of carriages, for the accommodation of local and general nabobs, who will ride to the scene of the ceremony … We expect that some good will come to Preston … but … we are by no means in unison with those who fancy that it will transform the town into a sort of perennially blossoming maritime Paradise.’
Walker, ‘The Woodburn at Preston Dock’, edwalkermarine.com Sports coverage, selected Preston newspapers, 1880-1900 (no. of columns published per week)
Preston Herald Preston Guardian 60 60 50 50 40 40 30 30 20 20
10 10
0 0 1880 1890 1900 1880 1890 1900
Lancashire Evening Post Preston Chronicle 60 60
50 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0 1880 1890 1900 1880 1890 1900
Hewitson on football
‘I don’t care for the game and I believe it would not by any means be so very popular as it is if it were not for the betting & gambling mixed up with it’ (Diary, 15 Nov 1884)
‘Preston North End footballers beaten to day, by West Bromwichers at Nottingham. A big, idle, godless, hands-in-breeches-pockets, smirking, spitting crowd in Fishergate waited a considerable time for the result … Could like to see a hose pipe opened or turned full on them.’ (Diary, 5 March 1887)
‘the massing of so many thousands of Preston people in the streets, &c … to see eleven vanquishers in the domain of ball-kicking ... quite inexplicable, and absurd on account of its excess … The town has a right to feel proud of its football champions; but the town need not go silly …’ (‘Local Chit-Chat’, Preston Chronicle 6 April 1889) 1870s 1880s Preston Guardian Illustrations Sat & Wed Local history
Preston Herald Illustrations Sat & Wed Local history
Preston Chronicle Local history Sat More local news Direct, personal, chatty voice Gossip
Lancashire Evening Post Mon-Sat 1870s 1880s Preston Guardian Illustrations 12pp for 1½d Serial fiction Sat & Wed Local history Illustrations Children’s column Local history Dock-agnostic Preston Herald Illustrations 12pp for 2d Women’s column Sat & Wed Local history Illustrations Children’s column Local history Pro-dock Sport Preston Chronicle Local history 8pp for 2d Women’s column Sat More local news Local history Dock-agnostic Direct, personal, chatty voice Direct, personal, chatty voice Gossip Gossip
Lancashire Evening Post 4pp for ½d Mon-Sat Sport 1870s 1880s
Preston Guardian Illustrations 12pp for 1½d Serial fiction Sat & Wed Local history Illustrations Children’s column Local history Dock-agnostic
Preston Herald Illustrations 12pp for 2d Women’s column Sat & Wed Local history Illustrations Children’s column Local history Pro-dock Sport
Preston Chronicle Local history 8pp for 2d Women’s column Sat More local news Local history Dock-agnostic Direct, personal, chatty voice Direct, personal, chatty voice Gossip Gossip
Lancashire Evening Post 4pp for ½d Mon-Sat Sport Local identity was …
• promoted and celebrated, to sell newspapers • dynamic, changing • only one factor – also competition, price, capital, journalistic innovations, ability to attract new readers